(PETERBOROUGH) Before he even started at the Peterborough County OPP detachment, Michael Jack says his colleagues nicknamed him “Crazy Ivan“ due to his Russian heritage.

That is just one of many claims in a 120-page document that outlines his multi-million dollar lawsuit against the OPP, Ontario Provincial Police Association and fellow officers. Mr. Jack is seeking $4,145,135 in punitive, aggravated and general damages, claiming he endured racism and unfair treatment during his year-long stint with the local detachment, between January 2009 and December 2009, which ended when he claims he was forced to resign from the force or face being fired. Mr. Jack filled the lawsuit in at Toronto courthouse on Dec. 21 and his allegations have yet to be proven. Mr. Jack says his lawsuit isn’t about money.

“I want acknowledgement that what they did was illegal,” he says from Israel.

Mr. Jack, a Russian Jew, moved to Israel in 1990 and then to Canada in 2000 where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and a Master of Science degree in the Applications of Modeling in the Natural and Social Sciences at Trent University. His studies led him to work as a course instructor in Trent’s computer science department, but Mr. Jack says the chief of York Regional Police, whom he met in the weight-lifting room at Trent, encouraged him to look into a career in policing because of his education and background with Israeli Navy and Israeli Merchant fleet. Mr. Jack took the advise and by 2009 he was working at the Peterborough detachment as a probationary constable. And that’s when his life turned upside down, claiming that the OPP used his ethnic background against him.

“I was a foreigner, spoke with a thick accent and came across as knowing too much,” he says.

Mr. Jack claim states that he was deprived of regular performance evaluation meetings and developmental opportunities, among a long list of other allegations detailing his unfair treatment in the workplace.

“I was treated like I wasn’t welcome there,” he says.

Since resigning, Mr. Jack says it has been almost impossible to find another job with a police service and that he has experienced and continues to suffer from, among other things, anxiety, depression, sleeping disorders, poor concentration and deteriorating health.

“There was a lot of mental abuse,” he explains.

“I came back to Israel just to survive. If I stayed there, I wouldn’t have survived.”

Mr. Jack also filed a human rights complaint against the detachment. It has been put on hold while he pursues the lawsuit.